29/05/2026
Two beautiful Louis Wain artworks have sold at auction years after being found in a skip in Pembrokeshire 😺 Wain is one of Bethlem Royal Hospital's most famous patients, well known in Victorian times for his anthropomorphic cats, which appeared in vast quantities in prints, books, magazines, post-cards and annuals. Wain's cats engaged in every form of human activity from playing cricket, digging up roads, and riding bicycles, to parading the latest fashions at Ascot and making pompous after-dinner speeches at the club.
Despite his fame Wain never made much money, being highly impractical in business matters, and during the war he began to suffer real poverty. Always known as being somewhat eccentric, he began to develop signs of serious mental disorder. In June 1924, he was certified insane and admitted to Springfield Hospital in Tooting, then a few years later to Bethlem. Wain was eventually transferred to Napsbury Hospital, near St Albans, where he continued to paint until his death in 1939.
Bethlem Museum of the Mind has the UK’s largest public collection of Louis Wain artwork - we have 56 original pieces, with 5 currently on permanent display.
A couple who spotted two paintings in a skip while walking their dog have seen them fetch £16,000 at auction
They had hung on the walls of their home in Pembrokeshire for several years before they decided to learn more about the artist, according to Rogers Jones Auctioneers
The couple then realised Louis Wain was a celebrated British artist known for his depictions of cats in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
"We always joked they might be worth something one day but never truly believed it," they said
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r2y0wwg5eo
